By PD KaKasam
once read the quote of a wise man who opined that no nation go beyond the level of its education. I totally agree with that assertion. This is really the case in Nigeria.
While in my undergraduate days, I had course to study GST courses. That was understandable because the undergraduate system is complex and it is important to have little touch of broader subjects. However, I only took GST for a single session. As I ascended, those irrelevant subjects were cut off the curriculum because I was being trained to be a specialist of my field. This scenario isn’t limited to me but to every undergraduate student. By the time I got to 500 level, I was left with my course and only my course of study- no GST, no Pol Sc, nothing.
Today I desire to become a master in my field of specialisation- Law, only to be met with a requirement that Arabic, Entrepreneurship and French are basic requirements for the award of a Masters in Law.
The question I have asked is how is Arabic, French or Entrepreneurship relevant to a Masters in Law? First, our laws are neither written in Arabic nor French; second, Entrepreneurship has little or no relevance a man desiring to have a masters in law. May I quickly point out that that most successful entrepreneurs of today like BillGates and Dangote didn’t study Entrepreneurship. So I wonder why a set of opportunist who got appointment into the Federal Ministry of Education will myopically believe that stressing students with the study of Entrepreneurship will make them succeed in life after school.
I am actually becoming very irritated at the madness of this ‘Entrepreneurship’ thing. During my NYSC days, I endured all manner of nonsense in the name of Entrepreneurship. If I had wanted being an Entrepreneur, I would have studied Business Management. Why make me study a course am not interested in indirectly?
That’s for Entrepreneurship. As for Arabic, I don’t want to start raising the issue you are thinking. But if the educational system were truly magnanimous, they should have made Hebrew part of the course. That’s what I would have loved for pro bono.
The point am just making is that distracting an aspirant for a masters of Law with irrelevant and inconsequential courses like Arabic and French is just annoying but counter productive.
It is further collaboration of the clueless nature of those in charge. It is reasonably unthinkable to even start imagining this scenario in this advanced age. Somehow, someone needs to say it. Distracting students with borrowed courses at Masters level shows the Minister of Education and the NUC Chairman needs to be sacked. We can’t have specialists so distracted like this and expect them to be good products in society.
A specialist must stay on task on his area of specialisation. What I see is the system trying to make me aback of all trades and master of none. We can not allow this madness to continue
My name is PD Kasam
